How are open windows detected?

I've installed a Tado thermostat recently and it seems to be pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to detecting open windows. I've tried opening a nearby window twice: once it detected it and once it didn't. But more interesting is that it shows several false alarms, where it detects an open window even though there has not been one. So my question is: does anybody know what criteria are used to detect this? Is it, say, a sudden drop in temperature?

Comments

  • Turned it off on all rooms. Useless gimick in my opinion. I wonder how many customers requested this?

  • @tulloch

    Open Window detection is an increasingly common feature. Netatmo have this as well.

    I can certainly see the point but obviously it needs to work in reality.

    With simpler smart TRVs i.e. not Tado or Netatmo you might implement a similar feature yourself by having a genuine door/window sensor on the window so you know for real when the window is open.

  • So far only false alarms.

    And then this comment you receive on your phone: "Wow you did a good job ventilating your room".

    Designers of smart devices really think we are stupid, as people said, a pretty useless gimmick.

  • I got mine today.

    I initially set mine up at my desk upstairs.

    When I took the thermostat downstairs to install, it triggered an "open window".

    It also triggered when I opened the front door to retrieve several wheelie bins that had made a bit for freedom in the 60mph storm today...

    So I suspect it detects sudden changes in temperature, which would make sense.

  • Presumably correct.

    Yesterday I calibrated the temperature at the radiator thermostat against the temperature measured in the middle of the room and I entered a 3 degrees offset to correct the thermostat value. A few seconds later I received an (of course false) "open window" alert. That surely came from my manually entered artificial sudden temperature drop.

    Perhaps Tado shares this with the user somewhere, but I assume they don't because this kind of "smartness" is proprietary.

  • It's pointless as the "off" time is static and bears no relation to the time the window is open, even when correctly detected. As pointed out above, a swiitch on the window is the only way it can work properly. You have to wonder why money is spent developing a largely pointless feature which I doubt a single customer requested when the features that customers really want are ignored.

  • I’m also getting this. I’m new to tado roughly 2 months with 8 rooms connected. I keep getting false alarms of open window detected with no window open.

    What is also strange is that with 8 rooms connected. 1 main thermostat in hall with TRV also and each other room with TRVs. It doesn’t tell me which room or where the window is opens

    In fact I can’t even seem to find the information of where other than enable or disable window detection and turn off heating.

    This feature is very poor
  • I'm with most here, one of my main thermostats (wall mount) is about a foot from my front door, downstairs, I can open my front door on a 5 degree day and my home is heated to between 18-19, leave it open wide for several minutes even 5 or so, no trip of the "open window" let alone the front door, yet I get open window shouts through the day in a brand new build with none open ? I have no idea how this works if the above fails, seems pointless to me as well.

  • Exact same story here... gives false alarms when windows are closed and no alarms when ventilating.

    Either I have something set wrong, or the feature is poorly developed (as many other aspects of the app).

    Example: outdoor humity is currently very low. We have humidifiers in house for better climate. Indoor humidity & temperature are higher than outside. Opened the door for 15 minutes (no alarm from Tado). Yet when i look in the app I see a sharp -8% drop in humidity levels and a sharp 4degree temperature drop. Surely this could have been a trigger?

  • I got the same issues👎👎👎
  • I've been having a "heated" debate with Tado support about the useless Open Window feature. Apparently is gets triggered "when the temperature decreases by 0,2 °C in 1 minute or by 0,3 °C in 2 minutes. Relative humidity decreases by 2% in 1 minute. ".

    It doesn't work properly for me, even when my patio door is wide open causing a temperature reduction in the room where the thermostat is sited, but apparently the reduction is not rapid enough, so Tado triggers my boiler and I end up heating my garden.☹️

    Incidentally, I made a suggestion for improving open window detection where the system should notice that heating is active but the increase in room temperature is less than would be expected with the heating blasting away. When the heating is going but the room is not getting warmer, the system should guess that the window is open and stop futilely trying to heat the room! See https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/4364/open-window-algo-to-include-ineffective-heating-detection#latest

  • Also new to tado and keep getting false alarm on open window in one of our rooms in the basement. So I get it that humidity is sensitive to fluctuations. Would be awesome to optimize it to trigger open window when heating is blasting full on/ heating temperature is higher than room temperature.
  • I've just had a new combi gas boiler with Tado smart thermostat, and I regularly get false alarms (open window detected, switch off the heating question).

    Can anybody point out where on the app or the Tado website, the criteria for triggering are defined?

    My guess is that the company has been too optimistic in incorporating this feature. It is simply asking a single-point temperature sensor to cope with the many effects of an open window! Or is there a humidity sensor in the same thermostat?

    I think we are going through an era when all sorts of 'smart' devices aren't really smart and much more development is needed (which will happen, I'm sure). It's like my Alexa smart speaker - it's OK, but you have to talk to it like you would with a 3 year-old child!

  • @Bernster only two messages above yours the information you seek is presented

  • rafm5
    rafm5 ✭✭✭

    Hi All,

    For anyone interested about open window feature please see this thread - https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/comment/38583